posted at 10:01 am on August 1, 2014 by Noah Rothman

House Republicans looked set to pass a bill on Thursday aimed at addressing the crisis on the southern border. After being revised repeatedly in order to appease conservative members who thought the bill did not go far enough, the leadership appeared to have settled on a final version which enjoyed broad support. The package even had the backing of moderate Democrats like Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).

“GOP leaders went to great lengths to secure passage by allowing a separate vote on a measure that would block Obama from any further executive action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children,” USA Today’s Susan Davis reported on Thursday.

While the GOP leadership realized that the bill would never be passed in the Senate (even if it were, President Barack Obama pledged to veto it), House Republicans were prepared to pass something to address the issue which communicated to the American people that they were acting to address what the GOP had been calling a crisis for weeks.

But the votes did not materialize and, rather than see the bill fail in the House, the leadership pulled it. Democrats are ecstatic.

“Another stunning legislative embarrassment for House Republicans has handed Democrats a mighty big talking point over the next three months until the midterm elections: The GOP is incapable — if not unwilling — to govern, they will argue,” NBC News’ First Read team reported on Friday.

[T]he past 48 hours might have been even worse for Republicans — suing the president for taking executive action, not passing legislation to provide relief at the border, and then saying that there are executive actions Obama should be taking on the border. (Huh?) As even Charles Krauthammer said on Fox, “It is ridiculous to sue the president on a Wednesday because he oversteps the law … and then on a Thursday say that he should overstep the law.” Here’s the deal: If Democrats hold serve in November (retain control of the Senate, minimize losses or even pick up seats in the House), we’ll all look back on the last two days as the week the GOP blew it.

Moderate House Republicans like Tom Cole (R-OK) cannot square the circle and, in a display of intellectual honesty, conceded on Friday that his fellow members are behaving in an absurdly contradictory fashion.

Even Texas Gov. Rick Perry took a shot at Congress for its inaction. “Congress and the president have a duty to address our border security issues without further delay. Congress should not go into recess until the job is completed,” he said on Thursday.

Even if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz did not play a leading role in helping to scuttle the border bill, as Washington Examiner reporters Betsy Woodruff and David Drucker revealed Thursday evening, his involvement in this episode will feature prominently in Democratic talking points and fundraising pitches. The junior Texas senator who led Republicans into the disastrous government shutdown last fall motivates the Democratic base nearly as much as does former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Conservatives claim that the GOP’s bill was a political maneuver and that, if the border crisis is real, it should be tackled seriously and with resolve. They are correct, but the Senate and the White House are arrayed in opposition to tackling this problem with the seriousness it deserves.

Lacking the authority to resolve the border crisis on their own, the House GOP sought an advantageous position for the summer in order to put the onus back on the president. That effort failed and, unless the House Republicans’ emergency scramble to craft and pass some border measure is fruitful, GOP members will spend the summer explaining to the press why they did nothing on a “crisis” but were perfectly united when it came to suing the president. And the average Democratic base voter will be that much more energized for it.

This was never about policy, it was always about politics. For too long, Republicans have falsely equated good governance with good politics. These are not synonymous. Democrats learned long ago that good politics is good politics; governance comes later, if ever. The purest of intentions do not amount to much, particularly when those intentions are and ever will be impugned in the press.

This was an unforced error. One which serves to elevate the careers of a few while diminishing the party’s overall chances for success in November. The House Republicans may yet correct this mistake, and the damage might be mitigated if they do. But if they do not, this is going to be one long August recess.

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There was no point passing a bill that just would have died in the Senate, or been vetoed by Obama. AZCoyote on August 1, 2014 at 10:15 AM

Reid said the policy changes would give him an opportunity to attach the comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed last year with the support of 14 Republicans. “If they pass that, maybe it’s an opening for us to have a conference on our comprehensive immigration reform. If they’re finally sending us something on immigration, maybe we can do that,” Reid told reporters after a lunch meeting with his caucus.

“We’ve been looking for something to do a conference on. Maybe we can do it with that,” Reid said.

Reid said the policy changes would give him an opportunity to attach the comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed last year with the support of 14 Republicans. “If they pass that, maybe it’s an opening for us to have a conference on our comprehensive immigration reform. If they’re finally sending us something on immigration, maybe we can do that,” Reid told reporters after a lunch meeting with his caucus.

“We’ve been looking for something to do a conference on. Maybe we can do it with that,” Reid said.

You have to laugh at the pathetic attempt by Noah to scare monger obsessively over motivated dems one day after motivated republicans put a stop to this asinine bill(temporarily at least) that never should have been brought up to begin with.

Hey morons….there’s no rule that says ONLY DEMOCRATS CAN BE MOTIVATED TO ACT!

Here is the only response republicans should give and should have been giving from the beginning:

The solutions to this immediate crisis – and our longer-term immigration needs as well – begin with the president finally enforcing the law.

There is no amount of money Congress can spend… there is no new law that can solve this crisis if the president and the leadership of his party continue down their lawless path.

There are several steps the president can take – immediately – that do not require any action by Congress or another dime from the American people.

He can stop abusing “prosecutorial discretion.” He can end the DACA program which provides administrative amnesty and work permits to those who entered the U.S. illegally as minors.

He can close the door to any further expansion of DACA to millions of additional adults. And he can signal his commitment to this solution by quickly returning those who enter the U.S. illegally to their home countries.

But by announcing to the world that he will not enforce laws requiring DHS to process and return those who come here unlawfully, the president is encouraging hundreds of thousands of children and adults to make a very dangerous journey to come to the United States illegally.

That’s the problem….there’s no guarantee it would die at all. This is the House that has been whining about the 2008 “loophole” preventing the deportation of Central Americans for weeks as being the problem that just tried to expand that loophole to include Mexicans.

Exactly why Conservatives have been against ANY bill being passed out of the House. Amnesty will be added in conference, and America is BONED.

Meople on August 1, 2014 at 11:22 AM

We were warning about this last year that we didn’t want the House to pass anything relating to Immigration. With Boehner carrying the water for Reid/Obama, he continues to ignore Americans and furthers Obamas’ agenda. The R’s in the House, let by the Conservatives/Tea Party members need to replace him by any means necessary (lawfully, of course)

The junior Texas senator who led Republicans into the disastrous government shutdown last fall

Good grief, talk about showing your true squish colors. The more of this type of drivel I read, the more I question why I come to this site. Heaven forbid we stand up to President fundraiser or any of those punch-drunk liberals. Kind of hard to have a chance at winning any media messaging wars with surrender monkeys like you around.

It really was despicable for “The junior Texas Senator” to close off Veteran’s access to our DC Memorials, our national parks; including those who PAY for that access with business leases, etc. Oh wait…

Please go to MSNBC or somewhere you’d be appreciated. They are probably looking for a good solid conservative like you to finish balancing out their programming.

Well, Eeyore #2, they would have to vote in front of God and country aqnd I doubt it would pass.

Vince on August 1, 2014 at 11:30 AM

That didn’t stop them from doing what they did in Mississippi. They wouldn’t CARE if it meant screwing over Conservatives and the Tea Party.

Meople on August 1, 2014 at 11:34 AM

I believe that Reid’s efforts would fail in the first place and that is what Senators Sessions and Cruz were laying out to the conservatives in the house.
As I’ve said before, I don’t know why the Tea Party/Republicans don’t hook up with Labor to fight against amnesty.

Thanks, canopfor. Appreciate your info. Haven’t checked in the last hour, but( Hse plan is still to do 2 bills. 1 for supplemental w/policy changes & then updated DACA from Blackburn. Unclear if 2nd is contingent on 1st)

This was the way the two bills were to be voted on yesterday. I doubt that has changed, but we’ll see. They certainly don’t want Blackburn’s HR 5160 or Cruz’s S.2631 voted on, LOL Those would really be reform! They would still want those voted on after the Boehner bill because they know all of the Dems & RINOS would vote against them.

all this flapdoodle about how the democrats are ‘now’ going to be energized is just that….flapdoodle. We’ve still got the next round of health insurance cancellations / premium increases to go through. Also, you can bet Drudge and Brietbart will be covering the raping and pillaging done by the recent wave of illegal immigrant ‘children’ (i.e. MS-13 members) and their adult ‘escorts’.

For too long, Republicans have falsely equated good governance with good politics. These are not synonymous.

Good governance is good politics. This is demonstrated by Obama’s tanking approvals. When you can’t govern or manage the government effectively, all you have left is politics.

Democrats learned long ago that good politics is good politics; governance comes later, if ever.

So Republicans should give up on good governance because Democrats choose to only focus on politics? Republicans must become more like Democrats?

The purest of intentions do not amount to much, particularly when those intentions are and ever will be impugned in the press.

The purest intentions don’t amount to much, but according to Noah we need to put politics above competent governance. What is focusing solely on politics, governance be damned? Is that not a demonstration of concentrating purely on intentions?

Noah’s message is essentially saying: It’s ok GOP. Become more like the Democrats and focus only on politics and you will be safely re-elected. Don’t try to govern or actually solve problems.

This Noah character is getting on my nerves. There’s already too many voices on the left to add his to this site. I think I’ll just avoid it for a while. It sure has changed since the boss sold it to these RINO’s.

I believe that Reid’s efforts would fail in the first place and that is what Senators Sessions and Cruz were laying out to the conservatives in the house.
As I’ve said before, I don’t know why the Tea Party/Republicans don’t hook up with Labor to fight against amnesty.

Vince on August 1, 2014 at 11:48 AM

That could be. If Cruz and Sessions were saying that, I trust them more than anyone else in Congress (Lee and Gowdy included).

I can only assume that you were huffing glue while writing this piece, so I’ll forgive its incoherency. Here’s what would have happened with the bill they tried to pass yesterday:

1)Reid would have refused to bring it to the floor
2) GOP would have gotten blamed for “not negotiating”, which is newspeak for “capitulating”

Let’s be clear: if the GOP passes a bill granting amnesty to illegals (and I don’t care what euphemism they’re calling it today), they would have voted themselves into a permanent minority. Not surprisingly, the more conservative side of the House and Senate (okay, one or two Senators) understands this and balked at voting for yesterday’s bill, which action you claim will prevent them from -possibly- taking the Senate. To summarize:

1) Vote for yesterday’s craptastic bill and commit political suicide
2) Refuse to vote for yesterday’s bill and-according to you- commit political suicide

At this point, I’m almost certain that there’s a brain parasite infesting the nation’s water supply because the ability to add 1 and 1 and get 37 is becoming waaay too common.

Well, it sounds like the House will vote on this “new & improved” version of Boehner’s bill. Looks like they will pass it and then we’ll see what is in in.

I see now why Reid was smiling yesterday.

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) said he is worried that Republicans will pass a first bill only to see the second bill, addressing DACA, fall.
Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks:
“I very strongly prefer that we publish today what ever bill there is that leadership is going to put forward and give the American people time to read the bill and then share their insight with their elected congressman. Right now the American people are being shut out of the process and as a consequence I am very much tempted to vote on on the 24 hour rule or the vote-today rule that is being offered.”

Your entire piece seems to be a defense of the establishment at the expense of conservative lawmakers. Perhaps, the onus is on people like Boehner and McCarthy who are more interested in scoring political points (at least in their mind) rather than passing good legislation. The language was absoultely terrible and did nothing to address the crisis. Whether the Senate passed it and the President vetoed it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the House should not be voting on terrible language just to put the “onus” on the Democrats. That is spoken like a true Establishment type that thinks they can scheme their way to power–and then give us stuff like No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D. Perhaps, conservatives didn’t want to lie to their voters over the recess by saying they tried to “fix the problem” when that is exactly what was done.

Why not put the responsibility for the failure here on the Establishment Republicans who refused to appease conservative members–you know, the ones that actually care what the language says? Apparently in your view, conservatives deciding they won’t vote for a bill they don’t like is horrible, but Establishment refusing to put out a bill that conservatives like is perfectly okay. There is a reason that there are so many Republican primaries these days–that kind of attitude by leadership. Basically, “we know best, so do what I say.” While you are right that this is an “unforced error,” you are wrong to blame the conservatives in the House. It is Boehner, McCarthy and the rest of leadership, huddling together and deciding on language and a strategy without even attempting to check with the people who will be voting on it. These past two years has shown me one thing–House Republicans need new leadership. The current Leadership is still acting like its 2004, where members just blindly follow party leadership. That might happen in the Democrat caucus, but in the Republican caucus, there are now members who actually think for themselves and read the bills rather than the talking points.

It was a joke to seperate that from the bill that gives Obama his money.

Boner has played this game before, “boning” the conservative base: separate what Obama and the GOPe want from what will reign in Obama, so that it fails to pass and Obama gets the part he wants.

ConstantineXI on August 1, 2014 at 12:22 PM

He’s been carrying water for Obama, aka Reid since 2010/2011. Now it sounds like they are close to having the votes & Bachmann and even Steve King are all praising this new & improved version. I call it another Boehner betrayal of the American people.

Another point as well. All we hear all the time is immigration has to be done “comprehensively.” That is political talk for–we want to try to hide all of the bad stuff and pass the good stuff. Here we have the exact opposite. Boehener and company want to vote for the bad stuff in the first standalone bill to even get to the less bad stuff (make no mistake, the changes by Boehner’s staffer Becky Talent made the second bill pathetic) in the second bill. Yet, if this was a real bill for border security (the McCaul bill is not border security by the way, no matter what the talking points say), there is zero change it would get a stand alone vote.

So what have we learned. Leadership is prepared to permit votes “comprehensively” for junk, but refuses to combine two bills when part of one of those bills might have decent stuff. Leadership needs to go.

John Boehner doesn’t believe that he in DC to serve either his direct constituents or the American people. Those constituents and the American people exist to serve him and the rest of the patricians in DC.

With that, it’s not really a betrayal. It’s just his true fecklessness and contempt on display.

Who is this leftist Rothman? And why is he being given space on Hot Air? We get enough of this drivel elsewhere.
redware on August 1, 2014 at 12:28 PM

Rothman is a dull, second-rate writer who supports illegal alien amnesty, abortion, gay marriage and RINO/”moderate” Republicans over conservatives. He has a history on Twitter of belittling HotAir readers and has labeled as “valuable commentary” an article which quotes HotAir commenters and labels them as “racist.”

Suffice it to say he would not have been my first choice for the site.

It’s a real shame because Salem had so many wonderfully talented, entertaining conservative writers to choose from.

Sorry, but I need a little help. With 80% + of Americans wanting the swarm of illegal crossing the border to stop. Why is this a good thing for the Democrats. Do they get points for helping bring in the most diseases, murders and people who refuse to use toilets?

It was fun to look at the comments trashing Rothman for the first few months … but that is getting old. He’s not trolling. He’s a real liberal.

He is, in essence, claiming that the country wants to keep these new illegals. He offers no data but just out of thin air claims that republicans standing firm on borders would be a PR disaster.

But no poll backs him up. Everyone on here knows that people (all types – LIV also) are nervous about our new open border policies and WANT someone to get a hold of the situation. WHat a complete bubble these bloggers live in! Noah, please, the country is not for open borders, buddy! This is politics 101. You know this. Think.

A majority of both independents (56 percent) and Republicans (60 percent) support speeding up the process. Democrats are split, with a plurality of 47 percent believing the government should follow current policy while 46 percent think the process should be expedited.

THose numbers will get more weighted towards speedy deportations as time goes on. Most polls have it north of 60%. Rasmussen had something like 85% of republicans(Is Rothman a republican?).

Comin’ in late to this post and this viewpoint was probably broached, but I just wish to say, … Big Deal.
The House couldn’t pass an immigration bill so quickly* such that it could POSSIBLY remedy the machinations of the White House? This is an absurdity.

*Remember – “We have to pass the Bill to see what’s in the Bill.”?
WTF people!
Prezzie Choombro does what the fark he wants ANYWAY. The LSM cheers him on in for WHAT EVER THE HELL HE DOES.He doesn’t enforce the LAWS AS THEY ARE WRITTEN ALREADY!
Holder only enforces the laws that he wants to.
Get it?

The warning came from the head of the WHO Margaret Chan who said that the epidemic was moving faster than their efforts to control it.

Dr Chan made the stark warning at a regional summit of the leaders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the Guinean capital of Conakry, where she also said the response the virus had been ‘woefully inadequate.’

She explained: ‘If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socio-economic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries.

‘It is taking place in areas with fluid population movements over porous borders, and it has demonstrated its ability to spread via air travel, contrary to what has been seen in past outbreaks.

‘Cases are occurring in rural areas which are difficult to access, but also in densely populated capital cities. This meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response.’

However, she did emphasise that the general public is not at a high risk of infection.

She added: ‘Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of viruses and other microbes.

‘We must not give this virus opportunities to deliver more surprises.’

Seems prudent to secure our borders and screen any people entering the nation, for any reason, for infectious diseases… as federal immigration law requires.

Sorry, but I need a little help. With 80% + of Americans wanting the swarm of illegal crossing the border to stop. Why is this a good thing for the Democrats. Do they get points for helping bring in the most diseases, murders and people who refuse to use toilets?

pwb on August 1, 2014 at 12:47 PM

Does the house GOP passing nothing help stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border? No? Well then you have your answer.

In about a year, the Presidential primary season will be in full swing.

When Noah tries to tell us who we need to vote for, remember this post.

Baggi on August 1, 2014 at 2:39 PM

No kidding! I was giving Noah the benefit of the doubt in my responses because I thought maybe he just wasn’t understanding what was going on–but I’m starting to wonder, at least after some of his posts on immigration. My guess is that we will hear that Romney or Chris Christie are the only ones that can win because they are the most “electable.”

Just saw report that two bills have passed, second dependent on the first. First hands out money, second maybe reduces time the aliens are on the dole and paying lawyers.
Please explain why this isn’t a FAIL.

There were two border bills passed the House last night. One to provide emergency funding to deal with the border crisis, and the other one was to defund DACA (Defered Action On Childhood Arrivals). The following statement is from a friend who has been working on House border bill:

The bill’s opponents, as you can see, are against the bill mostly for sins of omission, rather than of commission. They want it to be a “comprehensive” border bill, solving all of the woes down there at one time and in one bill. Language on DACA is the primary omission but there would be other problems even if we were to add that to the package.

The thrust of the bill is to require the agencies down there (HHS, DHS, etc.) to reorder its priorities and their budgets top address the crisis at hand. Process the children quickly and humanely within 10 days of their apprehension. Bring the National Guard to the border and give them duties that will free up the Border Patrol to do its job. Demand that the Central American countries do more to address the problem in their own backyards. More immigration judges and other resources to expedite the handling of the surging caseload. And we offset all the new spending ($659 million) from other government accounts, and all in this year. No net increase in federal spending. Tougher on drug cartels; tougher on traffickers, etc.

Very scaled back from where the Democrats want to be. Push the decisions relating to the next fiscal year (2015) to the regular appropriations process so that any funds allocated to this will be spent under the current budget caps.

The new measure added $35 million to deploy National Guard troops to the border, which makes it a total package of $694 million. It was certainly a huge success for anti-amnesty conservatives.